


The Devil In The Details

by LHasty



Category: Undertale (Video Game)
Genre: I guess., Mobsterstuck?
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2019-04-05
Updated: 2019-04-05
Packaged: 2020-01-05 07:59:33
Rating: General Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 746
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/18361874
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/LHasty/pseuds/LHasty
Summary: Just some of last year's NanoWriMo prep!





	The Devil In The Details

He would've been hard-pressed to tell you just when, exactly, he knew that his life was going to be full of unpleasantries. 

It wasn't that he'd had a rough upbringing. This wasn't some story of a kid on the streets, struggling to get by or to help his starving family make ends meet. He'd had a perfectly normal childhood, with loving parents, and what more could he really ask for? But the life we start with is rarely the life we end with; if life is a song, some sound crazier than others. He was no different. 

Most people - or, more accurately, most _humans_ \- were fairly surprised when they learned the finer nuances of monster life. They had things like schools too, and he'd gone to some of the finest. He'd become a brilliant scientist - brilliant enough to be the Royal Scientist, selected by the King himself. 

He was, as the humans said, sort of a 'big deal'. But it turns out that making mistakes, even when you're this high on the social ladder, will get you into all sorts of trouble. 

Of course, Kings don't always stay Kings, either: the introduction of the Human world to their world had caused a social collapse that they could not have even remotely anticipated, much less could've prevented. What had once been neat and orderly was suddenly chaotic and frightening. Crime suddenly ran rampant and you either moved with that flow, or you got left behind. There were far, far too many poor monsters living in the regions. Sure, there were still jobs, real jobs with real pay, but those monsters? All answered to someone. 

In the beginning, 'King' Asgore became 'Don' Asgore, and he'd continued to serve the goat-headed monster for some time. But then there was...incident, and all of that shattered. Make no mistake, it hadn't been intentional. He didn't go out of his way to betray the man; he liked to think of himself as better than that. He prided himself on loyalty and earnestness. No, it'd been the other way around. _He_ was the one who'd gotten screwed over, and Asgore had offered neither him, nor his family, any recompensation. 

Which meant that he had to take matters into his own hands. Sans and Papyrus didn't mind. They were still young at the time and violence came much, much easier to a younger monster than an older one. He'd simply directed them, and everything had neatly fallen into place. The monsters of Snowdin had learned, quite quickly, which side of the bread to put their butter, and in no time, the region had been under his control. And while he was quite capable of being remarkably cruel when it was necessary? He was also known for being fair. 

That was the one lesson he'd learned from Asgore: people will tolerate cruelty, so long as you're fair about it, strange a concept as that might've seemed. Asgore had always seemed incapable of that. He was always cruel - and, of course, always catering to that whackjob wife of his. He'd been more than happy to sever ties from them, in the end.

Now it all boiled down to keeping things in line. By now? The monsters under his control were just that: _his_. He didn't have to worry about rebellion from them. He treated them fair in his way, they paid him protection money, it all worked out in the end.

But as he turned his gaze down the road, the streets flanked by tall brownstones where hundreds of humans were packed in like sardine cans? He couldn't help but wonder if this was a bad idea. Monsters were easy to control, after all: he was the devil they knew. To them, he was predictable - or so he figured they liked to think. They were probably off the mark in that regard, but he didn't feel the need to tell them that.

Humans? Humans were another beast altogether, and while he knew they were frightened of him and his, what would that fear make them do? It's a funny thing, fear. Sometimes, it can make you run and hide, sure. 

Yet, if there was one thing that he'd learned in his long life?

Fear could also turn you into the worst kind of monster there was, the type that would do anything to survive, anything to make it through to another day.

It was certainly the type of monster Gaster had turned out to be.


End file.
